Intuit’s Post

This week I onboarded my first intern at my agency Volt & Clove. I was motivated by some pretty strange Day 1 experiences I’ve had as a marketing new-hire in startups like: ✅Design your own business card ✅Take photos on your iPhone of our new product for our website… you can take photos, and know Shopify, right? ✅ Meet the team in this conference room for our “onboarding” with the most unfriendly people we could find in the company, have some sandwiches… I couldn’t wait to empower someone by giving them all the tools they need to be successful. Like what an exciting role to play — and sooo important. I was giddy 🥸preparing: 💡30/60/90 day plan 💡Ongoing tasks 💡List of resources 💡Suggestions of newsletters & podcasts 💡Project management space via Trello 💡Communication loops 💡Due dates that are reasonable 💡Company credit card to purchase any tech they need It’s certainly not easy being self employed during these times. But owning something and getting to sharpen or shape someone else’s future for success makes me think of other rewards of business ownership. #agencyowner #marketingagency #startupgrowth

🚨25+ Product Management Opportunities and more!🚨 Wrote another snippet for my blog with over 25 different product management, product marketing, and other product opportunities at companies like Tinder, Okta, NVIDIA, Salesforce, Walmart, Duolingo, and more! Check them out in the following post and follow me for me product roles and content! #internships #summerinternship #earlycareer #opportunities #jobsearch #productmanagement #productmarketingmanager #mbainternship #productmanagerjobs

Last week I had the privilege of sharing a stage with Sylvia Ng, CEO of ReturnBear and previous GM at Shopify and Koru. We gave advice to over 300 teens at Prequel FounderTO. Here's what we discussed: 1. There are many forms of entrepreneurship, it doesn't all look like a unicorn startup. Defining a problem and having the agency to take action on it can happen within a larger company or as a lifestyle business. Figure out what kind of life you want and then use your career to create and enable that life. 2. It's okay if you don't know what you want to do. Sylvia tried internships in medical MRIs and applied data before landing in e-commerce. She realized she enjoyed solving inefficiencies—the better she got at that, the more responsibility she took on and the more leadership positions opened up. Take your best hypothesis and go after it and then keep tweaking as you go along. 3. Don't set goals based on titles and recognition. Titles and recognition will come if you set goals based on the work you want to do and the impact you want to make.

Biggest Founder Mistake: Delaying revenue from Day One 😱 One common misstep I've noticed among founders is the extended period spent building a product without generating any revenue. It's a classic scenario: spending months, even years, perfecting an "MVP" only to find out that the market demand isn't as expected, or worse, missing out on potential revenue. Here’s why aiming to earn even just $1 from day one can be transformative: 1. Real MVP Launch: It pushes you to release a functional MVP quickly. This isn’t about creating the perfect product; it's about launching a viable one that meets basic customer needs and can be iterated upon. 2. Market Understanding: Charging from the outset forces you to identify and understand your target audience – who are they, and what are they willing to pay for? 3. Product Validation: Immediate revenue generation is a litmus test for your product’s market fit. It’s a tangible way to gauge interest and viability. As the founder of Intern Guys, I’ve seen the value of getting a product out there and starting the revenue stream early. It's a strategy that can save time, resources, and lead to more informed product development. Hence ship your MVP now and make $$$ ASAP. Maybe look into hiring interns if you need help shipping quick! #StartupStrategy #MVP #RevenueGrowth #FoundersJourney #BusinessModelValidation #InternGuys

This has been long overdue since 2019. Announcing Possibilities Fest — our conference to celebrate and share our years of learnings and practices by collaborating with the best founders, startups, enterprises, and government bodies. While Instagram and LinkedIn provide daily doses of insights, these seemingly "no-brainer" tips often become "not for me" when we try to integrate them into our lives. Possibilities Fest 2024 is a global event meticulously designed to provide hands-on learning for 200 participants. Our week-long event features 20+ workshops, each spanning 3 hours, crafted to leave you with practical skills you can use the very next day. 🗓️ 12-18 Aug 2024 ⏰ 7-10 PM IST / 6:30-9:30 AM PT Check out 👉 https://lnkd.in/gFwcYaMV Each session aligns with 'Future of Work' competencies such as leadership, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, creativity, digital literacy, and more. If you're a brand designer, product designer, artist, illustrator, copywriter, product manager, project manager, researcher, young founder, or marketer, our tribe of 30+ experts is ready to help you with practical, actionable insights to enhance both your personal and professional life. If you're an Org/Founder interested in putting your team in the workshop, comment below and I'll DM you a coupon code. Sneha Tejali Vidhunnan #upskilling #workshop #learning #learninganddevelopment #consultancy #designconsultancy

All The Awards Are Bullsh*t Here’s What I’m ACTUALLY Proud Of: Ok, I know that may sound a bit harsh, 😅 But it’s the truth. What’s important to me will surprise you… At Growth Gurus, we've created an environment where it's okay to fail, It's okay to put yourself out there. In fact, it's encouraged to push yourself and to expand your knowledge. We have four core values, and one of them is that we’re excited to learn. Instilling that value of 'try it, do it, give it your best shot, figure it out'—that's what I'm most proud about. Here’s a 15-second story of how Jon-Paul Calleja conveyed this attitude: Today, JP is our Head Of Production. He actually started as an intern 7 years ago, And he didn't really give me a choice… 😅 He found me at a party, took me to a side and said, "I'm going to be an intern for Growth Gurus. Trust me, I'm going to do this, this and that. I studied this at university and I'm just ready to give it my all!" "Okay, come on Monday for an interview." This was on a Saturday night. He came on Monday with his laptop and he just sat down and started working. That was seven years ago… Since then, he's been through every department, literally. At one point, our web department had too much work for the amount of resources we had. JP stepped in and said, "It's okay, I'll do it." "No, you work in the marketing department,” I replied. "No no no, I'm gonna learn web," JP insisted. Not long after, he became the Head Of Web Development. And two years later, he's trained over six people in that department. But then, he got a bit bored of doing websites… "I want to do strategy." And then he went into strategy. I promise you this is exactly how it happened 🤣 By pushing himself, he's mastered almost all the different levels of our business. And now, he's managing the production department. So he oversees those three pillars and that's just a beautiful thing to witness,  That zest and that eagerness to learn. Now, what value can you extract from JP’s story? Always have the student mindset, And never stop learning. I’m curious - how do you ensure you’re always learning and moving forward? I sometimes catch myself slowing down and staying comfortable… Until next time, Josh

🌟 Spotlight Saturday: An Interview with Leyla Khanahmad, the co-CEO of Bootcampr 🌟   Q: How did you break into product management? A: Breaking into product management can be a challenging endeavor, especially for those without prior experience or a traditional pathway into the field. When faced with this obstacle, I took matters into my own hands and created my own opportunity by starting a startup. This entrepreneurial journey not only allowed me to gain firsthand experience in product management but also provided me with the chance to showcase my skills and abilities in a tangible way. However, I understand that not everyone has the resources or desire to start their own venture. Recognizing this gap in the market, my colleagues and I founded Bootcampr.io, a platform where entry-level SWE, UXD and Product Managers can purchase work experience.   Q: How would you address the myth that "only coders belong in tech”? A: Art and business students bring valuable skills to the table in the tech world. If you're into design in high school, you can break into tech as a UX designer. You'll jazz up digital stuff, making it easy and cool for users to interact with. If you're more into business but don't know a line of code - you CAN rock, it as a product manager. You'll get how tech works at its core and make sure products meet both user needs and business goals. Art and business students are key players in the tech game.   Q: How did you come up with the idea of allowing people to purchase work experience? A: The idea for Bootcampr.io came from wanting to level the playing field in career opportunities. Many face the dilemma of needing experience to get a job but needing a job to gain experience. This disproportionately affects those without traditional pathways into their desired fields. We aim to break this cycle by providing hands-on projects and experiential learning, challenging the idea that work experience must come from formal employment. https://lnkd.in/g4ZjyN6f

My first-ever intern Vidit Dugar (now family) quite innocently asked me last week, "Diksha, how is it to not struggle anymore?" I laughed so hard, I cried. Running a #bootstrappedstartup is probably the toughest thing I've done in my life for the past couple of years and it has taught me more than an MBA could have. Here's what my last week looked like: 1. Feedback/Asking > Ego I sent a voice note to a family friend because she chose another agency over us for the work we do (that she has seen), asking her to have at least given us a shot at sending a proposal. I sent it for two reasons - one, I wanted feedback on why she didn't think of us - is it not clear enough, what we do on our website etc., and two, I hoped she'll give feedback on why they over us. So it was a win-win for me to send that shameless voice note, I had nothing to lose - did I? 2. Applying the art of thinking clearly Got a rude text from a team member (a text that should've also gone to my male co-founder) on a bad day but I sucked it up, and did (hopefully) the right thing of communicating what I wanted, but politely. Hate this about being a female boss - they think they can take the anger out on you! (Happy women's day to me 😂 ) 3. Client comfort > Arguments to prove your point Got long feedback text from a client - I apologized profusely and offered the solution we were already working on behind-the-scenes. Spent the next day on streamlining processes for reviews and making them happy against all odds. 4. Dogfooding > Fear Very hard to let someone handle my social media image, but I've given in and am fully trusting my own in-house personal branding manager. :) 5. Stepped into team's shoes enthusiastically & observed gaps in the process (should do this more often than not - highly recommend to early-stage founders) Subhankar Suman Sushma Chandrashekar were on leave on the same 2 days and delegated work to me hehe. For 2 days, I had to be them with clients, I tried but failed on multiple occasions! But the silver lining was Ashish Sangle and I sitting on problem-solving for the gaps I noticed! 6. Crisis brings the team together like nothing else <3 Cherry on the top - early morning call from Ashish Sangle today while I'm on leave, saying, "Moksh Sharma will not reach for the shoot" (for same client from point 3 - our luck haha) - and that was a good enough statement to jolt me awake from my deep sleep. The next 2 hours after the call were full of jokes, motivational speeches, collaboration, and getting things done. And guess what? Moksh reached in time for the first shoot of the day while Sushma Chandrashekar and Sona (don't know why I can't tag her) held fort for him! It's true, when you work hard with deep and good intent, things work in your favor. Here's a picture of happy & cute Sushma who "can't move" to take other selfies. 😂

Working for a startup is a whole new experience It has been a month and a half since I've been interning with degpeg a startup which provides SaaS in live communication. I signed on as a pre-sales #intern and wasn't exactly sure what I would be contributing to the company, but as we've always heard, in a #startup, you sign up for everything, and that's what happened. I started managing the company's #LinkedIn page, which brought my interest towards posting on my LinkedIn. And, guess what, I managed to bring 30k impressions and a good sum of engagement on my personal LinkedIn and close to 10k on the company's, which was almost a 400% hike than the previous month. Then I got my hands on writing effective ad copies in the #B2B space, which, I swear, took a lot of effort because it was about one business convincing another. I know one cannot always bring results to the table, but yeah, “failing fuels the urge to succeed”– that's what I believe in. Currently, we are working on #Google and #Facebook ad campaigns, and a few more interesting things have been lined up. Let's see what I can learn out of it. A special thanks to our companies founder and CEO Vipul Jain for sharing your experience and knowledge #internship #experience #startup #friday Ps - i know the below image talks about movies 🍿

Thank you to Icehouse Ventures for bringing together these three wonderful humans (Hamish Cook AKA Cookie/facilitator, Audrey Cheng & Matthew Liebmann) - a great discussion about all things PRODUCT. *Abbas' personal rendition of the discussion - super brief summary / not word-for-word / key themes* Cookie: Tell us about yourself and how you ended up in PRODUCT Audrey: Biologist turned product officer, leading with empathy and adopting a growth mindset. PRODUCT management is an internship Matthew: Immerse yourself in the field and genuinely enjoy it. PRODUCT is a multidimensional role and you need to think of it as a team All three: 'Fell into' PRODUCT Cookie: Lets dive deeper into PRODUCT and team Audrey: Consider different perspectives, what drives teams around you so they don't feel isolated Matthew: We're joined at the hip [with key players] - emphasis on closeness Cookie: When you hear Design (what), PRODUCT (why), Engineering (how) - what are some of your thoughts... Matthew: *Blue Button switch* - a lot of what and not enough of why, what is someone trying to achieve (purpose, intent, objective) Audrey: Need to ask better questions, rather than jumping to solutions, unpack what they're trying to achieve All three: Work on solutions that add the most value / financially viable AKA can we build it / can we sell it Cookie: The craft of experimentation....validate or invalidate your hypothesis, the customer should lead us to the solution Audrey: Not everything is going to work and we need a cultural shift (in perspective). Trust is needed in order to undertake meaningful work and to learn quickly and early Cookie: Avoid internal / confirmation bias Matthew: Favourite part of the job [experimentation]. Need to embed feedback loops between customers, clients, testers - at all levels The world of PRODUCT is huge and I encourage you to connect with these three if you want to learn more about the space. Most companies are doing PRODUCT one way or another...think... --> Product Strategy (company goals / market demands) --> Product Development (ideation to launch) --> User Experience (friendly, intuitive) --> Market Research (industry trends, customer preferences) --> Revenue Growth & Business Development --> Cross-functional Collaboration (engineering, sales, marketing, clinicians) Health Economics Consulting NZ PRODUCT journey hasn't quite reached Charizard status (yet) but its still fire 🔥 !!